Grow light timing and wattage outputs

Yea your soil mix although a super cool idea does not really change the light requirements :). ummm I think your thinking more along the lines of an overall light plan or someway to really effect growth... Iv'e read about like 10 on and 12 off (not 24 hours) for flower. Or just 24 hours on for veg. It's really just what your overall power costs... Run 24 hours during VEG if you want there is no harm.. They will keep on growing. The general thing people do for veg is 18 on and 6 off.. I was running a Veg of 21 on and 3 off.. During Veg as long as you don't go longer then 12 hours off it's kind of like whatever you wanna do.. As far as mucking with light cycles during flower, don't. Do a 24-36 hour dark before you start 12-12 but they need the 12 hour of dark. Any changing of that after the start of flower is not really worth it.. Your plant will naturally want to VEG or FLO doing both or going back and forth is really bad for the plant and can turn it into a hermaphrodite.

Welcome! The veg stage of the plant requires more light than the flowering stage. Some people like giving 24 hours of light during veg, but I prefer to give them a little rest and use an 18/6 schedule. I set my timer for 18 hours of light and 6 hours of darkness. Depending on your grow space and how many plants, etc. will determine how long you veg for. I do a SCROG setup with 2 plants in a 3x3 and I usually veg for 10-11 weeks to fill up my screen before flipping to a 12/12 cycle to force the plant to flower. At that point, it's 12/12 for the rest of the grow. The soil type really has nothing to do with light cycles. If your light has separate VEG and BLOOM switches, you will use the VEG only light during VEG and then BOTH switches turned on during the BLOOM phase. I hope this helps!